The Curse of the Cat

156. Indirect

The breeze was heavy and hot in June. Still, Zoe found herself sitting on a branch outside.

She'd found Koichi, like that. When his secret had slipped out. And she wondered if anything would have been different if she hadn't met Koji first.

She wouldn't have known where to go for help, but she might have found him anyway. Might not have brought two estranged twins together, though, and surely that had to be a good thing.

But maybe one couldn't miss what they never had. What was worse? Having a taste of freedom only then to be denied it, or having never had it in the first place.

It was barbaric. It was wrong on so many levels and yet it continued to happened and they weren't even fighting it. They weren't even trying to fight it… but what could outsiders like them do? They were only looking for sneaky ways around things and Zoe wholeheartedly agreed to pitching in for a sim because there should be some connection to the outside world.

But they still didn't know what would work, what would be worthless. They might not be able to sneak up to the room, even if they could get into the compound. They might be forced to forget, like Koichi feared. Who knew. Who would know until it happened and was too late… and would they even realise they'd forgotten something?

And what would their poor mother do, with her child being ripped out of her hands?

157. Haze

Zoe didn't mind running, except when it was running away from something. But she was sure she'd have run with this. Even if it meant leaving her parents, and she loved them. But living in a cage was unfathomable, and it took a certain kind of strength to say he wouldn't run, she knew.

Maybe, one day, she might have forgotten the friends she'd made for a brief period, and the small pockets of fresh air she'd enjoyed.

Didn't make it easier, at all, to bear.

Still didn't mean any of them regretted befriending them: two members of a cursed Zodiac.

Didn't mean that, in a stilted stone-walled room, those memories that made things a little bit more bearable and painful as well didn't seep out like the fresh air.

158. Puzzle

Kousei watched Koji looking through the photo albums again.

He wasn't going to find what he was looking for. He knew that. They both knew that. But they looked anyway.

'Do you have any recent photos?' Kousei found himself interrupting. He wasn't sure if the idea had just come to him or if he just wanted to break the cycle.

The cycle did break, at least. Koji looked up, half-lost, and nodded. 'On our phones, mostly.'

'There's something to be said for physical photo albums, after all.' He nodded at the one Koji held.

And there certainly was, as Koji began putting one together with a sudden gusto.

159. Try Again

Koichi wondered… if he had another sixteen years, what would he have done differently?

He wasn't sure of it was the deadline, or Chiaki's visit, or Fuyuno's letter, but something had stirred the pot in him a little. How much would he have pushed? How much could he have pushed? If he wasn't putting anyone else at risk, how much could he have pulled away and how much would that have cost him?

If it hadn't been his brother as the cat, his mother as the guardian, his father for staying behind so both of them had a parent, his parents for breaking their marriage for their children, the Sohma family for being steeped in curses and century old traditions that hadn't aged very kindly at all.

Maybe their generation missing the bird was an omen. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. Or maybe there'd been a mistake somewhere and Chiaki should have been the bird: the one who dared to spread her wings.

160. Reap

The saying went, one reaped what they sowed. But then what was the Sohma family's sin, so long ago, that led to them being so embroiled in this curse?

Fuyuno didn't know. He was just one in a long line, and there would be a long line after him. Perhaps there had always been some hierarchy embedded into them. Maybe they'd been royalty, one of those ancient dictators whose names were forgotten but demeanours remembered. Maybe they lived in the time where the true gods danced on the earth and they were too arrogant to be polite, and gods were vengeful enough to curse an entire bloodline for such matters of impoliteness, weren't they.

But that didn't mean the current generation deserved that, or at least not at first. But their own sins piled up anyway. He doubted the other Zodiac members disagreed that Fuyuno, as their leader, didn't deserve an early death. He doubted it was any different for his predecessors. He doubted it was going to be any different for his successors.

They reaped what they sowed, after all.